Snap crackle sinus

February 22, 2008 9:21 AM

Why do my sinuses crackle when I sing?

All my adult life (as a singer of opera & musical theater), I have experienced distinct crackling sensations/sounds (audible to others) that occur when I sing.

I must warm up to the point that I "sing through it" and smooth out the crackling that takes place in my sinus cavities. Certain notes are more likely to result in crackling. Generally, the more thoroughly I warm up and sing, the more the crackling goes away. My mental image of the process is that I must break through some sort of barrier to achieve optimum vocal resonance. Some days it takes me 30-40 minutes to get there.

Has anyone else experienced this? I use saline solution, facial massage and have seen an EENT, none of which have given me any idea why this occurs. I don't think it's a dryness issue. What is happening physiologically when I sing that could make my sinuses crackle?

posted by I_Love_Bananas to health & fitness (4 comments total)

Could it be more of a bubble popping sound rather than a crackling? Maybe you are over hydrated, and it takes a while to dry up enough to prevent any bubbles from forming in your throat/nose/voicebox?
posted by Grither at 9:44 AM on February 22, 2008

I don't know that I have an answer for you, but I'm also an opera/musical theater singer, and I experience this every now and then. It's not as often as you write, and it more often happens when I'm not singing every day.

I have described the feeling as similar to those small crackles and pops (er, and snaps) that are worked out of muscles at the beginning of a massage.

In other words, it's always felt to me as something going on in the soft tissue around my soft palate and sinus cavity - almost like a stretching and warming of those muscles.
posted by minervous at 9:45 AM on February 22, 2008

Could it be located in your eustachian tube instead? I hear crackles when I open my mouth wide, as I imagine you do when singing.
posted by sanka at 9:49 AM on February 22, 2008

Your sinuses are probably just equalizing pressure, because of the warming up of the facial muscles when you sing. That would be consistent with having to "sing through it", and it going away after a defined period of time.
posted by LN at 10:29 AM on February 22, 2008